As a lover of historical fiction, I found MtP one of the reading disappointments of a long reading career. The language is so stilted , it's funny :"I am in awe of you." ?? The idea may be good, the historical research thorough, but dry....dry....I am stopping my laborious reading at the point that the incredible young heroine meets the 6'2" hero.....ENOUGH!!!!!

I recently moved to the east coast from California and was given a gift book called, "Marching Through Culpeper". Prior to reading this wonderful book, my exposure to Civil War history was limited to history in school and a few movies. It was always incomprehensible for me to understand the southern perspective until now. Reading Virginia Beard Morton's book opened my eyes to the thoughtless ravaging of innocent people, their homes and their land.

Yet, this book is so much more than about the horrors of war -- it's above all, a wonderful love story -- love of the south, family, and way of life. It's without question the best romance story that I've ever read. I loved the central character, Constance who was beautiful, strong, courageous and ahead of her time. And the fact that Constance is based on an actual women's life during that period, adds to the charm. My favorite character is Frank Stringfellow and his humor and ability to overcome obstacles under the most dangerous situations.

Ms. Morton illuminates a vision of honor, pride and courage of the gentle southern people who sacrificed everything. This book is a "must read" for everyone -- but especially women -- whether interested in the Civil War or not. I can't wait to see it when it gets made into a movie!

Warning ! Before you start to read "Marching Through Culpeper" be very sure you have 48 hours with nothing else to do! You will not be able to leave the story and characters of this wonderful novel based in Civil War Culpeper, Virginia!
Virginia Morton has created a masterpiece of historical fiction. The story-line is well crafted, the fictional characters individually interesting and engaging, and best of all, the detailed history and real-life Civil War heros are portrayed to educate and entertain.
Those of us who are not Civil War buffs, read history only occasionally and may be from "Union territory", definitely do not have an adequate understanding of the impact of the Civil War. I learned more from "Marching Through Culpeper" than from all the history classes taken in my earlier years! This book brings you right into the heart of the conflict - up close and very personal.
I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone! It is a great novel for men, women and is quite suitable for teenagers. It will grab your heart, test your mind and will become a part of your life. You will remember this book and you will read it again! When is the MOVIE coming out???
I give it a FIVE-STAR rating!!

This book is great!

It offers many helpfull suggestions for anyone who isnt sure how to throw their next party.

The tutera tips are great, they are straight to the point, and even have some humor.

The photography is spectacular, I wish I could do what he does...I look forward to another great book by David Tutera!

This book can be used for any type of entertaining from the most glamourous to outrageous fun! You really get the feeling that anything is possible when it comes to planning a party and that the more unique it is, the better you feel as a host and the more your guests are likely to come back for the next one. David Tutera's creativity is inspiring. I love the Tutera Tips. Decorating for the holidays and planning my next party have a whole new meaning!

A Passion for Parties by David Tutera is the best entertaining guide I've come across in years. I LOVE to throw parties and David's ideas are not only current and innovative, they're easy to throw together. I love the fact that so many of the suggestions are affordable.

Additionally, the photos througout the book are spectacular! It's no wonder David has such a loyal celebrity following.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves throwing or attending a suberb party. One of the best features are the Tutera tips, where David outlines his trade secrets, written in a way that a anyone can understand.

It's a MUST HAVE!

Since the publication of Leach's 'In the Shadow of the Dreamchild', Cohen's central thesis about Carrol's sexuality has become out of date and a little embarrassing. But I still recommend this biography as a good source of information about other parts of the man's life.

Cohen's portrait of Lewis Carroll as the child-obsessed freak who had no interest in women and who was in love with a series of 'little girls' including Alice Liddell no longer has much credibility, since Leach's revelation that most of this image is a myth and that beneath this myth Carroll DID have many relationships with women, some which caused scandal during his lifetime. Also Cohen's long speculations about a possible 'marriage proposal' from Carroll to Alice in 1863 have been rendered redundant by Leach's discovery of the so-called 'cut pages in diary' document in the Carroll archives.

This might tempt some to say Cohen's book is just not worth considering any more. But I don't agree. Parts of it are really superb and the best kind of biography. I still like his analysis of Carroll's literature and his incisive consideration of the relationship between Carroll and his father. He makes an honest attempt to present a real human being.

Worth 3 stars for that alone. Read it - but read Leach's book too -- in fact if you want to know about Carroll then her work is a must-see since she has forced an almost total rewrite of the accepted image of 'the man who wrote Alice'.

Cohen is clearly the world's foremost authority on Lewis Carroll, and his biography of this fascinating author is a rich amalgam of factual detail and careful analysis, supplemented with many interesting photographs.

Unlike the narrow thesis-driven Leach book, this biography provides a well-rounded and comprehensive portrait of Carroll the man and author.

Cohen has done more to establish the factual details of Carroll's life and work than anyone else, thanks to this biography and to his scrupulous editions of Carroll's letters.

If you are interested in Lewis Carroll and his Alice books get this volume. The day I obtained my copy I began reading at midnight and continued to daylight. The perfect account of a Romantic transcending the limitations of time and space...and the embodiment of charm.

Themes: stages of life: youth, middle age, old age; realizing your life's work will most likely be forgotten;New York intellectual life in past and present(forgotten literary heroes of Schiller's generation vs. new type of literary heroes of Heather's generation); parent/adult child relationship; intellectual (Schiller, Heather, Casey) vs. nonintellectual (Ariel). Style of writing is easy to understand, not ponderous, not Henry Jame-like in style at all. There some passages late in the book that are written in the sytle of Henry James and provide a contrast to the much easier to read style of this book. The book is written in third person subjective. Each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the four main characters. The chapters are short, so the shifting of perspective from one character's perceptions and frame of reference to another's occurs frequently. Morton handles the four distinct voices well. It's an involving, smart book, but terribly easy to forget. It's a little too dignified and reserved. Many questions the reader will have are left unanswered. I have to say though, it's a tasteful, subtle book that contains much wisdom, acutely observed human behavior.

Starting Out in the Evening is a joy to read. With deceptively simple, beautifully constructed prose, Brian Morton tells a compelling story - I couldn't put this book down after reading the first two pages - and deals with some pretty big themes, e.g. what does it mean to be an artist? In so doing Morton has created characters that are so utterly lifelike they live on in your memory long after the final page is read and although it deals with serious themes, it is never heavy handed and contains a good deal of humor.

The unlikely hero of this remarkable novel is Leonard Schiller, a frail, aging, out of print novelist, whose lifelong devotion to his art raises the fundamental question regarding the relationship of art to life and vice versa. However, the story belongs nearly as much to his 39 year old daughter, Ariel, a child of the 60s struggling with the issues of daily life while retaining the capacity to brighten the lives of those around her.

Heather and Casey provide marvelous counterpoint to the main protagonists: she is the graduate student who blazes her way into Schiller's dignified world in hopes of resurrecting his career while jump starting her own, while he is the level headed intellectal drawn to the charm and levity of the less predictable Ariel. These beautifully developed relationships ring true in every detail and are never sentimental.

It is not possible to convey what is best about this novel by summarizing the plot or describing the characters. It is Morton's writing that makes this book such a remarkable experience. Starting Out in the Evening is a must read - don't miss it!

This book sat on my bookshelf for nearly five years, and I cannot believe I allowed it to. It is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. It is deep and sentimental in topic, and yet it reads like a fast paced novel.

The characters are intense and mulit-dimensional: Leonard Schiller, a seventy something writer who's life has been dedicated to his art; Ariel, his forty year old daughter in search of her life's meaning and someone to father a child; and Heather, a twenty something aspiring writer and critic who decides to write a master's thesis on Schiller's work.

The relationship of the two women will Schiller is incredibly portrayed, as with Ariel Schiller is a loving and nurturing man, and with Heather, his passions are reignited and she makes him feel young. Also interesting is the way Heather and Ariel portray Schiller, and also the way these two women change as Schiller's life circumstances change.

The parallels drawn between the three characters is fascinating, especially since each person is so different, and at such a different place in life. Ironically, even though each feels so different from the other, when the older two are compared to Heather in their memories, it seems they are more similar then they think.

At the end of this beautiful book, one cannot help but wonder what happens to the characters. Schiller's life goal at the end is to complete his final novel, and I so wish he were a real person so that I could read it. He is a beautiful charcter that brings memories of Morrie Schwartz from Tuesdays With Morrie.

If you are looking for a touching, moving, beautifully written book, don't wait any longer. Pick this book up and you will not put it down. Even when you are finished, the characters live on.

I purchased this book as one of the required texts for a class I took at my college. This book is very helpful because not only does it increase your understanding of French grammar, it reminds you of the ins and outs of English grammar that you may not have seen or studied in years. The book is nicely divided into chapters that clearly explain important grammar basics. Another essential text for the serious student, and also for thse who want to brush up.

that this book has a website (oliviahill.com) where they list 16 different popular textbooks for learning french. Click on yours (mine is French in Action) and you are treated to a chapter and grammar topic breakdown of your textbook. For each grammar topic, they list the relevant reading you should do in this book before starting with your textbook lesson. You will be prepared ahead of time, and already comfortable with the concepts as they relate to the english language. This seems to me to be a pretty big bonus. You can refer to the other reviews as to how good the book is or isn't, because I just started with the course and the book. But it does seems simple, concise, and user-friendly. Don't panic when you see whole "chapters" being listed to read for one concept--the chapters are usually two simple pages that take just a few minutes to read. I was kind of a snob about where I thought I stood on grammar, and got this book "just in case." But I already see that there is a lot of detail I either forgot or never knew. As to how clear French in Action would have made things without this book, I don't yet know, but I'm glad I didn't try to skim by with a rough understanding.

I cannot emphasize enough just how necessary and crucially important this book is to own for college students of French, from 1st year/2nd semester, up to more advanced levels. This book is readable, concise, and easy to understand for English-speaking students studying French. Simply by juxtaposing French and English sentences, it teaches you French grammar from the viewpoint of English grammar, which makes it awfully ease to comprehend. It covers every single basic grammatical form, from the past tense (passe compose) to the future perfect tense (le futur anterieur). You cannot possibly go wrong with this book. The only thing you really need with this book is a good, solid memory. However, if your ambition is to engulf the full command of French grammar, such as those who intend to be French writers' someday, then buy Advanced French Grammar (c1999) along with this book. I own both, and they have both served as "end-all" bombs in conquering the difficulties in learning to read and write French. Take my advice, buy this book!

Morton Kondracke's "Saving Milly: Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease" is a powerful description of what life is like for families and victims touched by life-altering debilitating disease. In this surprisingly honest account, Kondracke describes his wife's struggle with the cruel and degenerative Parkinson's disease and his own transformation from an admittedly self-centered ambitious journalist into a more sensitive and loving caregiver.

While much of the book is focused on describing Milly's heartbreaking descent into the hell of Parkinson's, it also describes Morton's ascent into his new role as a leading advocate for increased funding of medical research. It contains an eye opening and sometimes disturbing discussion of the politics and competitive nature of medical research funding.

"Saving Milly" packs an emotional punch, particularly as Kondracke discusses the horrible choices he and Milly face as her physical condition deteriorates. One can only hope that the research made possible by Morton's activism will result in a cure or improved treatment in time to truly save Milly.

This is not a good book. It's a great book! And it is a must read for anyone who has Parkinson's in their life, be it as a victim, a relative, a friend or a caregiver. Like its author and his subject, it's also a complex book. Complex in the sense that it could be characaterized in one of several genres.

First, and foremost, this book is a love story written from a man's perspective. As a result, Kondracke shows the reader what it is like to have a type A personality filled with ambition, and to reconcile that with falling in real love with a remarkable woman.

Next, it's an autobiograhpy and a biography. The biograhpy part is easier to capture because the reader knows from the outset that he's writing about his wife. Thus, Kondracke tells us about this wonderful woman who becomes afflicted with this terrible disease. The auto-biography aspect is more subtle. Kondracke is extremly open and candid about his own short comings and neurosis, something, unfortunately, one rarely sees in Washington's leaders.

Next, it's a book about politics and the Parkinson's movement. For anyone interested in knowing how patients' rights groups fight in this town or about the history of Parkinson's in this town, Kondracke supplies amazing insights.

Lastly, this is a book about Parkinson's disease and the terrible toll it takes on the victims, families and friends. Kondracke chronicles and describes with enormous clarity the costs and destruction that millions of people with a Parkinson's connection have grown all too familar with.

If you have any interst in Parkinson's disease, get this book. Even if you don't and you want to read a great love story or a how to on politics, it's more than worth your time.

This is an exceptionally generous book -- a brutally candid examination of love, marriage, loyalty, trust, fear, courage and despair. Morton and Milly Kondracke invite the reader in to their family, and it is impossible to remain simply an observer. In addition to its power as a love story, and as a chronicle of how physicians and other health care providers are most/least helpful to their patients, the book provides a sobering account of "disease politics." "Saving Milly" is certain to serve as a powerful "voice" for Parkinson's patients and their loved ones. A must-read.

Question: Under what circumstances would paranoid white supremacists actually support vastly accelerated government intrusion into the lives of private citizens? This story attempts to define such circumstances in a sort of pre-apocalyptic America of the near future. But this premise is ultimately flawed since the is no natural support for the type of actions contemplated, not by conservatives, not liberals certainly not people of color or anti-government reactionaries.

Nevertheless the author manages to discuss significant racial issues, and particularly inter-racial relationships, in a powerful manner. Well worth reading in spite of the unlikely premise.

Jake Lamar's novel is disturbing, even depressing for those of us who believe that a truly integrated and diverse society is still possible. He manages, through his characters and various subplots, to examine nearly every major philosophical approach to the issue of race in the United States today. He uses his characters to make their own points of view known, then attacks the foundation of every argument, forcing the reader to confront his/her own perspective. This is uncomfortable, but the story is absolutely compelling. I found this novel on a clearance rack, and read it in three days.

Lamar's vision of an imminent quasi-fascist regime with wildly popular support is not very off-center; the wild-eyed rantings of the Right, the harsh political correctness of the more fascist wing of the Left, and the growing racial separatism within the African-American population all point to just such a destruction of the American Dream. The novel provides no real answers; perhaps we as a society can.

Jake Lamar's book is a great read! It's well-written, absorbing, and I found myself irritated at being interrupted as I was reading this book. My 24-year old son also read this book, and he said it is one of the best books he's read in 5 years. Set aside some hours of quiet time for yourself, because once you begin reading it, you won't want to put The Last Integrationist down until you finish it.

I am sixteen years old and I read an interview with Tori Amos (my favorite artist) who said that her song "Cornflake Girl" was inspired by the book "Possessing the Secret of Joy," so I picked up the book and read it. While I initially began reading it to look for lines that Tori might have used in the song, my focus soon turned to the story of Tashi, Andy, Olivia, M'Lissa, and the other characters in the book. The practice done to Tashi was hideous and I think it's good that Alice Walker is bringing the barbaric practice of mutilation to the public and trying to stop it. I let my best friend borrow this book for her school report on how badly females are treated in today's society, which is supposed to be equal, and she used "Possessing the Secret of Joy" as an example. Alice Walker helped me realize how we as women need to stand up for ourselves and speak out against anything we find wrong, whatever it may be, and Tashi's strength is prevalent throughout this excellent novel.

When I first came across this book, it beckoned me. The fact that it was only in hardback didn't even deter me from buying it, despite my limited budget, and I was not disappointed. I read it three times that week, and couldn't put it down. To this day, I read Possessing the Secret of Joy once or twice every year, to recharge the inspiration that it always provides. After some twenty readings over the years, I firmly believe that this is a book of chilling import as a literary masterpiece. Walker's craft is marvelous in this book. From the story of the panther named Lara to the chilling conclusion, this book is impossible to put down.

My only reservation about recommending this book to everyone freely is that some people can't stomach the frightening reality of female genital mutilation. Despite the fact that it is a difficult issue to read about, the presentation of the topic is artfully done.

I am an avid reader and have read a multitude of classics and contemporary works. I have read most of Alice Walker's fiction and nonfiction as a result of my love for Possessing the Secret of Joy, but this remains my all-time favorite work of literature!

I am a high school student going into the twelth grade and before my junior year I had honestly never heard of Alice Walker until my U.S. literature class when we began reading her novel The Color Purple. I enjoyed the book so much that I wanted to read and learn more books by the Alice Walker. My U.S. literature teacher offered to let me borrow another novel so I decided I would see if I really liked Alice Walker's style of writing the book she offered was Possessing the Secret of Joy. At first I wasn't sure if I would like it but as soon as I sat down to read it I couldn't put it down. The book has a lot of good points to it and it discusses a lot of issues that most people don't think or hear about very often. The book was really interesting because it taught me a lot about the horrors of female circumcision and the way it affects the women it is performed on.

The Penguin Guide is a well-written, informative survey of the field. It's the only jazz review omnibus I return to for pleasure, rather than for reference.

While this tome is more opinionated than competing reviews, it's good to have a consistent frame of reference. You learn what the authors like and dislike, and can apply that to your own preferences. The essays that accompany the ratings avoid the redundancies found in the All Music Guide, and do a better job of placing the recording in the context of an artist's career.

Because the authors are English, however, much of the discographical data isn't very useful for American consumers. Also, the representation of American labels can be understated. For example, there's a lot more Blue Note CDs in print in the U.S. than in Europe, leaving some notable gaps in an artist's output. Fans of other American labels and artists might find similar holes in the discography.

The flip side of its European focus is that you get reviews of artists and releases usually ignored by American reviewers. And the English/European jazz canon is different than the American version, making the Penguin Guide something more than the Revised Standard Version of the received wisdom you'd find in an American omnibus.

I wish the Penguin Guide would follow the example of the All Music Guide and simply review the important albums, deleted or not. Eventually those Bobby Hutcherson titles (to choose some personal favorites) will return to print, and when they do, you won't be able to consult the Penguin Guide, unless you wait for the biannual update.

If you haven't bought one of these books, buy this one. If you own the 5th edition, however, save your money.

You have three primary choices for these "jazz guides": All Music Guide, MusicHound, and Penguin. AMG includes reviews of out-of-print CDs, and older LPs, which can be frustrating because you'll read glowing reviews of albums you won't be able to find. MusicHound is a compilation of reviews by different authors, so you can forget about any kind of consistency. Penguin is informative, contemporary, and consistent. It's your best choice.

This book features 1601 pages of CD reviews and artist biographies, not including the introduction and index. Whatever your level of knowledge, however long you've spent listening to jazz, you're sure to discover something new in this book. And that's a tremendous reward for Amazon's price.

On the other hand, as an update, this edition doesn't impress me. Significant artists like Mel Lewis and Carl Fontana still lack entries. Mick Goodrick, Christian McBride, and others have actually been removed. The artists suggest, in their introduction, that those noting omissions should get a life. Of course, no one's perfect. There are, however, both minor omissions and glaring omissions, and this edition still includes too many of the latter.

Jim McNeely, for example, is listed on page 1005, along with four of his CDs -- the most recent, from 1992. The authors ignore "The Power and the Glory" [Storyville, 2001] and "Play Bill Evans" [Stunt Records, 2002], which are forgivable omissions. I believe "In This Moment" [Stunt Records, 2003] was released too late to be included.

But also missing are McNeely's "Lickety Split" [New World Records, 1997], which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1998; "Nice Work" [Dacapo Records, 2000], which was nominated for two Grammies in 2001; and "Group Therapy" [OmniTone, 2001], which was nominated for a Grammy in 2002. You'd think an artist nominated for four Grammies would receive a more complete listing in a book like this.

These are limited examples of a larger trend: this edition doesn't show enough improvement over its previous edition to be worth updating. If you don't own the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD yet, then my criticisms are nitpicks. It's a great investment for a reasonable price, and you should buy it. If you already own an older edition, however, I can't recommend you buy this. Spend your money buying a new CD, instead. Let's hope that 2005 will bring a 7th edition that will amaze us all, anew.

This the best guide to jazz available. The authors are intelligent, witty and biased - just the way they should be. I have all editions except the first one, so I obviously like their book. Nevertheless, I want to focus on the worst aspects of this remarkable piece of jazz scholarship.

1) Cook & Morton use a star-system to evaluate the CDs. Unfortunately, the ratings are inflationary. A mainstream record usually gets at least three (i.e. good) stars. This makes it useless to compare recordings by different artists; in other words, the ratings can be used only when one wants to know what might be the best recordings by a particular artist. Are jazz records really always good or very good? Of course not. It is simply absurd to read e.g. pages devoted to Chet Baker in the fifth edition: 76 records and only 8 of them is rated worse than 3 stars! Perhaps the authors, after all, have not had enough time to listen this vast amount of music?

2) Cook & Morton are very fond of both avantgarde jazz (especially european) and classic jazz of the 1920s. No problem with that. But they really should include more jazz fusion. I don't mean easy-listening instrumental pop, but serious jazz, like Allan Holdsworth. It seems to me that if an artist has flirted with rock music he will not be included even if he starts to make mainstream jazz. For instance, why isn't Bill Bruford included? The Earthworks records, not to mention the album with Eddie Gomez and Ralph Towner, have not found favour with Cook & Morton - probably because "Bill is not a jazz drummer". Is this just a coincidence or spiteful discrimination, I cannot tell.

3) The latest edition (5th) has too many errors. Of course there are always minor errors in a book this size. I give two examples. Coltrane's Ballads album hasn't got "I fall in love too easily" in it. Is the Navarro-Parker collaboration (Bird and Fats - Live at Birdland) worth 3 (cf. Navarro's entry) or 4 stars (cf. Parker's entry) and what actually is the quality of Navarro's playing on this record? More serious trouble has risen when the aurhors have edited their text more than once in order to update the entries. Sometimes they have failed and the text has thus become incoherent.

But never mind my complaints. This is a great book!

This is the most comprehensive book on candida I have ever read. The index is thorough. There are phone numbers of doctors that are familiar with the syndrome listed by state. I am learning much more from this book than Dr. Crook's more popular book "The Yeast Connection". This book includes more info in one source than you will find anywhere on the internet, including the candida forum (raincity.com then under health professionals) I did not buy this book from Amazon. I bought it from the bookstore and paid $3.00 extra!!! This book is technical, but easy to understand.

I first read this book about 13 years ago, and I was much more impressed with this book than with the more popular "The Yeast Connection", which I already had. The questionnaire in "The Yeast Syndrome" is excellent, as is the diet. After completing the questionnaire, I knew I had a Candida problem, while the questionnaire in "The Yeast Connection" had led me to believe I most likely did not have Candida. My symptoms improved considerably within a few days of starting the diet. I also consulted a physician and confirmed my self-diagnosis after a couple of months of following the diet.

I wish there was a more recent edition of this book that does not suggest using nystatin (which I did not use myself), but it is still a book I highly recommend having on your bookshelf! I have not seen a better questionnaire, and the diet is an excellent place to start. You may find you can mix "Phases" of the diet, for example you might be able to add oatmeal or rice to the "Phase-1" diet, depending on your personal food tolerances. I would suggest consulting a physician who practices holistic medicine (and can test for food sensitivities), and picking up another book or two on Candida for additional information. Changing your diet is the most powerful tool you can use to eradicate Candida, and is essential. And when you fall off your good diet, this is a good book to go back to, to help get on a good diet again!

This book was wonderful! For someone who has suffered for so many years with severe health problems I found this book like a wonderful breath of fresh, sweet desert air! What a clear understandable book! I am in the pages, especially the chapter that speaks about mental health problems caused by Candida. The authors have done their homework. I espcially enjoyed the chapter about Clarissa Candida and what she does to Jane's body. Everybody should read this book, if they are having major health problems that do not seem to be getting better! The book is a bit jargony but I enjoyed it, it well worth the price!